Saturday, April 19, 2014

manana, no es mia


i sit here still and hear the cries
the mothers’ arms empty of her child
she holds in one hand the words
text on her phone “If I forgot to tell
you recently, mom, I love you

why did the sea get angry and turn
lives upside down? swallow them into
its belly before they could say their goodbyes
as they pray in their last moments for
the strength within them and those they
love and left behind

i sit here still, oceans away yet I feel
an anguish a pain of how their absence
miserably fills the emptiness
in mothers’ hearts who gave birth and
breast fed thinking they’d share life’s
challenges good and bad for years
before they themselves return
to Mother earth

we’ve been witness to the insatiable
oceans need to feed from lives in the sky
and those playing in its waves, I wonder…
these lives, are they the lucky souls, have
they been taken so that they aren’t witness
to what the rest of us may soon be
when the sky and sun is covered with smoke
of burning flesh from wars and denuded forests
and the seas will swallow the land from melting ice

dare not sit here still,  I rise and walk out side
breathe the air, kiss the earth, embrace
the trees, the birds, I hug my lover my wife
and my two canine children; tomorrow may
not be mine

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Holy Day a holiday


my eyes open to the day
a vision of the sun awakens me
but even if it were a morning
of rain and grey
my eyes did open
truly a Holy Day

a soft, a heavenly coo from my
open window comes
a turtle dove, I think,
a pastoral sound of peace it brings
blessed I am, that my ears this morning hear
truly a Holy Day

and when my arms raise
my legs lift me from
a supine nighttime of dreams
that I can walk
and my voice can sing
today I celebrate
making this
a holiday
 

 

*for Susan at Poets United

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

hummingbird, a no show



 
the hummingbird today did not show
its wings too cold to flap in their flurry
the honey or sugar water too frozen
to sip through their tiny straw
 

robins were late to their morning feeders
cardinals, sparrows and blue jays
didn’t awaken in their symphony
the wind was too chilly on their throats
 

crabapple buds on the tips of limbs
were veiled in white from a sprinkle of snow
that should in April be ready to sprout
as the salmon in rivers be ready to spawn
 

although in winter the sky turns to grey
this morning’s spattering of white clouds are on
display as shards of sun rays pierce through
showing beginnings of the Spring’s rainbow hue
 

my spirit is slightly disheartened
by the tease of the cold and snow
yet I knew that soon in the day
this Nature’s discomfit will go away
and the crimson and green will
once again come out and play
 

when this be so, smiles will reappear
water fountain basins will be uncovered
robins and sparrows will come and bathe
and nearby the feeders of sugar water
will be visited by red throated humming birds
their gossamer wings will flit about
in that  familiar buzzing sound


*just wanted to write a small diddy for all
  the disheartened souls waiting for that Spring day